Dec. 18 (UPI) — French modeling agent Jean Luc Brunel was detained in Paris on Thursday as his agency is suspected of providing underage girls to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Brunel, 74, was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport while attempting to board a plane to Dakar, Senegal, after he showed his passport and airport authorities noted he was wanted for questioning by national police, NBC News reported.
He faces charges including rape, sexual assault of a minor and trafficking of minors, according to the prosecutor’s office in Paris.
Prosecutors said the arrest was part of an investigation into the possible “events of a sexual nature thought to have been committed by Jeffrey Epstein and other accomplices” opened on Aug. 23, 2019.
Virginia Giuffre, who has campaigned for justice for victims of sex trafficking after being abused by Epstein, said that Epstein bragged that he had slept with more than “1,000 of Brunel’s girls.”
Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell in August, while being held on sex trafficking charges.
Brunel and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, are alleged to have helped Epstein traffick underage girls.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy, perjury, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sexual acts and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Brunel has denied any wrongdoing in a 2015 lawsuit alleging “adverse publicity” surrounding Epstein has damaged his reputation.
